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Flowers for Moths
How to support these marvels of the night …
These days, butterflies are getting a high profile in gardening circles. Butterflies are beautiful, and
it’s easy for gardeners to plant flowers which will attract them. Yet butterflies are just one family in
the insect order known as Lepidoptera. The remaining 96% of Lepidoptera are moths. There are at
least 2,500 species of moths in Britain, some with extraordinarily beautiful wing patterns, but
because most of them fly at night, they are not as well-known as their butterfly cousins. Moths are
very important in the wider environment as food for bats.
There are two common day-flying moths which many gardeners will
see in a warm summer visiting bushes such as Buddleja and certain
Hebes. These are the Silver Y, so-called because it has a small silver
shape on each wing reminiscent of the letter y, and the Hummingbird
Hawkmoth, which hovers in front of flowers as it sucks out nectar
through its long thin tongue. Both of these moths migrate to Britain in
large numbers from Southern Europe in warm summers.
Green food for moth larvae
Some of the 2,500 or so moths in Britain have specific caterpillar food plants. Some of them can
only use a single species of wild plant, although others will eat a wider range. This is a good reason
to grow a range of European native plant species in your garden, especially common hedgerow
shrubs such as Hawthorn (which can be coppiced if they get too big). See the book list below for
details of books listing larval food plants.
Nectar for adult moths
Adult moths, like butterflies, feed on nectar which they drink through their long tongues. There are
a number of British and Irish wild flowers (e.g. several Silenes) which are generally regarded as
being moth-pollinated. This means that the flowers have evolved specifically to provide nectar for
moths, and in return the moths cross-pollinate the flowers.
We can’t assume that the typical 'moth flowers' that I list below are the main source of nectar for
moths. It can’t be the case because there are so many species of moths in the UK and Ireland and
the specialist ‘moth flowers’ do not grow everywhere. My observations at dusk in a warm summer
showed that moths visit many other flowers apart from the classic 'moth flowers'. In fact numerous
sorts of wild flowers and insect-friendly garden flowers receive visits from moths seeking nectar. Go
round your garden on a warm summer evening at nightfall, and look for moths at work.
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Perhaps the specialist 'moth flowers' are simply some that evolved to be particularly attractive to
moths as a reproductive strategy. It is certainly worth planting them, but don't assume that these
are the only flowers that moths will make use of in your garden.
Most 'moth flowers' are white or pale coloured, so that moths can see them at dusk. They are
usually scented, and often the scent becomes stronger in the evening. And the flowers often have
long tubes, to accommodate the moths’ long tongues and exclude other insects. If you plant these
flowers you will certainly help to feed adult moths in your garden.
Some classic 'moth flowers':

Wild Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum). This has a strong night scent and is pale cream in
colour – a classic moth plant, although the long flower tube means that only larger moths with
long tongues can use it. The cultivar ‘Graham Thomas’, is much more resistant to diseases than
the other cultivars of L. periclymenum. All honeysuckles do best with their roots in a damp shady
site and their head in the sun.

Campions. To grow the following you may have to start with seed from one of the suppliers of
wild flower seed. All are very easy to grow in a well-drained soil in a sunny position:
o Night- flowering catchfly (Silene noctiflora). An annual with pale pink flowers;
o Nottingham catchfly (Silene nutans),a perennial with white flowers;
o Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris). A perennial with white flowers with inflated
calyces; looks good in herbaceous borders or wild flower meadows, but can be
invasive.
o The trailing Sea Campion (Silene maritma) is similar, and is sometimes sold as a rock
plant (but do not plant the double-flowered kind);
o White Campion (Silene latifolia, also called Silene alba) – this is attractive to bees as
well as moths.

Pinks (Dianthus species). The kinds to grow are the single-flowered rockery pinks, forms or
hybrids of D. plumarius and D. caesius close to the ancestral wild species. These like sunny welldrained positions. The tall D carthusianorum will grow in gravel or in short grass. D. superbus
likes a damper soil and will grow in partial shade. All of these can easily be grown from seed. The
highly hybridised and double- flowered sorts sold in garden centres are no good.

Sweet Williams (D. barbatus). The single- flowered, old-fashioned kinds will provide nectar for
butterflies and some moth species. These biennials are very easily grown from seed, which
should be sown in June.

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis). The sort for moths is the single-flowered type with pale pink
flowers. (Note that the ones commonly grown are double or semi-double flowered, you will
need to grow the single- flowered one from seed or get it from a herb or wild flower nursery).
This plant is invasive in rich soil, and is better planted in poor stony soil or rubble or gravel in a
sunny position.
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
Evening Primroses (Oenothera biennis, O. glazoviana, O. stricta). No relation to the real
primroses, these tall biennial plants were introduced from North America almost 500 years ago
and soon became naturalised throughout Europe, where they have evolved into several new
species. Some strains are quite coarse and weedy – try to get seeds or young plants of a more
attractive larger-flowered strain from a friend’s or neighbour’s garden. O. glazoviana is one of
the best. By afternoon they look a mess, but in late evening pristine pale yellow flowers appear
that atract moths like a magnet.

Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber) A well-known cottage-garden plant which loves to grow on dry
stone walls or in gravel; it seeds itself and can be invasive. Has white or pink flowers. the
Hummingbird Hawkmoth (illustrated above) is especially fond of it.

Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum). This tall herbaceous wild flower needs a
permanently damp soil and forms imposing clumps. It is a useful addition to urban and suburban
gardens to help increase biodiversity. It is essential to get the unadulterated wild form. The
garden form with 'double' flowers produces no nectar and is useless for insects. This plant needs
plenty of room, and you may have to give it water in dry weather if the soil dries out.

Clematis heracleifolia This is an upright herbaceous perennial from the far east, with small
tubular pale blue flowers that are scented and look like hyacinth flowers. This and its hybrid the
vigorous climber Clematis x jouiniana ‘Praecox’ will both attract moths on a warm summer
evening.

Hebe ‘Great Orme’ This is a medium sized evergreen shrub with spikes of pale pink flowers in
July and August. There are many Hebes, of varying attractiveness to insects, but this never fails
to attract a wide range of insects, including moths after dark.

Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana alata) is a moth plant in its South American homeland, but it has
a long flower tube and there is no moth resident in Britain that can access its nectar. However it
will attract the very large Convolvulus Hawk Moth, which comes here as a summer migrant from
southern Europe but does not breed here. So if you grow N. alata you might be lucky enough to
see a Convolvulus Hawk Moth.
The following butterfly and/or bee flowers may well also attract moths to your garden, and this list
is by no means complete; there are many more:
Common Valerian and Marsh Valerian (Valeriana officinalis and V. dioeca), Verbena (Verbena
bonariensis), Wild Marjorum (Origanum vulgare), Wild Privet (Ligustrum vulgare), Buddleja, Bell
Heather (Erica cinerea), Knapweeds (Centaurea nigra, C. scabiosa and close relatives), and many
other wildflowers.
I’m very keen to receive feedback about plants for moths, especially any details of other flowers
that consistently attract moths.
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Moth Websites:
UK Moths – especially for moth ID
Atropos - a UK journal and website for butterfly, moth and dragonfly enthusiasts
National Moth Night
Moths Count – about recording moths
Some Books about Moths:
To identify moths (and other insects) in Britain and Ireland, the best introductory works are those
of Michael Chinery. He has published a number of good, well-illustrated general works about
insects, such as:
Garden Wildlife of Britain and Europe. Collins, 1997. ISBN 026 167408 0. Also contains a short
informative chapter about wildlife gardening.
Complete British Insects. Collins, 2006. ISBN 0 00 717966 9. This book contains good photographs of
most of the common moths that the gardener is likely to see.
If you want to learn more about the world of moths, the essential book to read is Enjoying Moths by
Roy Leverton, published by T and AD Poyser, 2001. ISBN 0 85661 124 7. By no means a dry tome,
this is a book by a life-long enthusiast that is totally readable.
A definitive identification guide is Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland, by Paul
Waring and Martin Townsend, illustrated by Richard Lewington. British Wildlife Publishing, 2003.
ISBN 0 9531 39999 1 3. Comprehensive, and Richard Lewington's illustrations are unequalled.
To find out about larval food plants, read Foodplant List for the Caterpillars of Britain's Butterflies
and Larger Moths, by Tim Crafer, Atropos Publishing, 2005. ISBN 09551086 08 (available from
http://www.atroposbooks.co.uk/). It is actually intended as an identification aid to caterpillars, so it
is organised according to the plant species and the caterpillars that are known to feed on them.
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Marc Carlton
Last updated September 2015. © Marc Carlton 2006-2015
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